In semiconductor technology, integrated circuits are usually produced on a semiconductor wafer, in which case, after the completion of the integrated circuits in the wafer, the latter is separated into a plurality of individual chips or components. These “two-dimensional” chips are subsequently mounted, for example, onto a leadframe by means of a bonding method or a so-called “flip-chip” bump method and packaged in a housing.
However, the use of such “two-dimensional” chips has disadvantages including an increased space requirement, reduced yield, and undesirable high signal propagation times, capacitances and inductances. Therefore, so-called three-dimensional multichip modules are increasingly being produced, a plurality of such two-dimensional chips or components being stacked one above another and electrically (and mechanically) connected to one another.
Particularly when realizing multiprocessor data processing units having a plurality of interconnected processors or processor cores, however, significant problems arise in this case in the context of the heat distribution or heat dissipation. Therefore, particularly when producing multiprocessor data processing units, two-dimensional chips are still used on which two or more processor cores are situated in a manner distributed in the semiconductor component. In this case, however, the disadvantages of inadequate signal propagation times once again arise, which lead to particular problems at present-day clock rates.